


come shine a light

by lilith_morgana



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 03:44:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3753256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilith_morgana/pseuds/lilith_morgana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Told you I’d find you,” she says.</p>
<p>And he lets her in without saying a word but his hands around her waist are urgent like an ancient hymn, a godless prayer. </p>
<p>Post-series standalone ficlet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	come shine a light

  
The place is almost ridiculously huge, looming over the mild desert like it is its own little planet in this remote colony system. Through the massive windows Shepard watches the sunset with the same kind of sensation that would appear at the Citadel, observing the busy space outside her flat. A breathless surge, a gap opening _._

Her thumb runs over one of the recent scars on her arm. Scars, torn-up skin over torn-up flesh and she blinks, remembering everything, always. If they come up with some kind of new mind-altering tech one of these days she’s not sure she’ll pass.

_The cybernetics work, though not as thoroughly as before, I’m afraid_. Chakwas voice is an echo in her mind. _It will take some tweaking, but I am confident we will work something out, Commander._

“Hey, Zaeed,” she turns her head towards the hallway between the lounge and the enormous kitchen. “What happened to that Earth Martini?”

There’s a muffled noise coming from the other room, a string of words that sound suspiciously like Zaeed insulting her laziness; she grins and gets to her feet.

  


 

––

 

 

Half a cycle ago, perhaps less, likely more and she stands between her shuttle and his planetside mansion. Her mouth feels dry, her shoulders tense.

He opens the door like it’s nothing, like he’s expected her even if the curl to his mouth and the twitch around his good eye are heartbreaking proof of the opposite.  

“Told you I’d find you,” she says.

And he lets her in without saying a word but his hands around her waist are urgent like an ancient hymn, a godless prayer.  

  


—

  


He’s rummaging around in the drawers when she enters the kitchen.

Such a strange sight, this bulk of a man among all these supplies and equipment that she wouldn’t have expected him to know the first thing about how to use –  _she_ certainly doesn’t – and his large scarred hands over polished surfaces and sharp corners.

“Spiking my drink?”

She slides her arms around him, buries her mouth against his warm skin that smells of sun and booze. The ink swirls that cover so much of the roughness there, that run deep down, reaching far beneath his shirt, almost touching the tattoo on his left side. All the marks on him, every life he’s lead and left in a blaze of fire and she always has to urge to push him up against her, make him _stay_. Even now she feels the need stir within, throbbing in her fingers as they tug at the buttons over his chest.

“No need, Shepard,” he mutters, that overwhelming thread of _warmth_ creeping into his words, flooring her every time. “You’re the horniest goddamn woman I’ve ever met.”

“Not that you’re complaining.”

He laughs, quietly, a mere rumble under her touch. “Not bloody likely.”

Shepard lets her teeth sink softly into the black ink while her hands are travelling over his body that has shifted just like hers – softer, fuller, less taut and much more _human,_ shedding the Reapers with every new day, every breath they draw freely – and he grunts as her fingers find their way underneath his boxers. His ass rubs against her, pushing back when she teases, wrapping her hand around his cock almost half-heartedly, wanting to her him let out that complaining noise that undoes her every damn time.  
  
Since she first stood outside this house they have barely gone an hour without this, without touching, holding, _clawing_ at each other and those horrible fragments of _then_ that are threatening to surface every idle moment. They have lost so much, such endless wastes of lives and lands, losses that can’t be left behind, can’t be _uncounted_.

He erases the burden of it, a little more every day. She hopes she does the same for him, hopes it with her hand around him and the other one stroking his chest, tangling in the coarse hair and causing him to inhale sharply as her palm presses down over his nipple. He’s hard, even harder when she rubs her thumb over the head of his cock and then lets him go.   
  
Zaeed turns around, his hands grabbing hold of her hips and he’s kissing her, fiercely and with the same urgency as the first time. They had collided then, in her flat after too many drinks and too little rest and he had called her beautiful. Nobody calls her _beautiful_ but he does and she lets him because there’s something at the bottom of his voice when she speaks the word, a swirl of something thicker than desire, something more complex and terrifying and –

Without warning he’s lifted her up and placed her on the kitchen counter and his tongue is against her neck, his fingers in her hair and she yanks her pants off with some effort, her skin warm on the cool surface that turns wet in an instance. He grunts into her ear when he feels it too, when his fingers travel down there to find her waiting, find her fucking his palm for lack of options; she tilts her head back and he pushes her backwards until she knocks over the bottles with her naked ass.

“Such a waste,” she breathes, mouth against his. The alcohol stings a little as it pours over the back of her hands but her skin is used to worse than that.

Zaeed grunts something as he takes her hand suddenly, looking up at her as he begins sucking the half-wasted booze from her wrist, her arm, then her fingers in his mouth, one by one. She breathes heavily, gaze travelling from the glistening rivulets of liquid running over her outstretched arm, from his lips, in between his knuckles. Parts of his shirt are wet, too and she takes it off, wants to see him,

_always_. His broad shoulders and the veins on his lower arms, the way his chest presses into hers as he slips a finger inside and she gasps, heels kicking at the drawers and at him, making his touch momentarily too-rough. She feels hot, damp breaths over her ribs and her stomach, feels the tip of his tongue outline the rises and falls of her breasts that she never bothers covering these days, revelling in the freedom that comes with not having to be ready for acting within seconds.

She comes with his mouth over her nipple, his free hand slipping between her legs and he’s inside her before she’s even had a chance to catch her breath. They’ve never wasted time, she thinks with a drowsy grin, pushing him deeper inside with her legs, her hands clutching his arms.

“ _Fuck_ , Shepard,” he says as he tips over that carelessly drawn edge with a groan that lands in her chest.

He tastes of vodka and gin and cigars and disgusting Asari wine and she doesn’t let him go until the metal surface gets way too uncomfortable and their combined weight makes her head spin.

 

—

  


It’s the middle of the night and she’s been here for half a cycle, perhaps less, likely more. She stands naked in the middle of the bedroom, scratching the slow-healing scar at the back of her neck and watching the thin stripes of starlight fall on the floor.

“Hey, Shepard?”

When she looks over her shoulder, Zaeed is awake again, one arm slung over his forehead as he watches her.

“Yeah?”

“Are you ever going to unpack that goddamn bag you brought?” He nods towards it; it’s still by the largest window, soaking in the light from the stars.

 She feels his question like a blow, a rush through her head. “Now?”

“Unless you have a better idea.”

“Maybe I do.” Her steps are light, his grin wide when she straddles him in bed. “Maybe you help me unpack it tomorrow.”

 Zaeed pulls her down for a kiss, his teeth tugging softly at her lower lip. “Lazy bitch.”

 


End file.
